RETRO//VRS founder Alessandria on counterfeits, authentication, provenance, transparency and accountability in luxury resale.

Can You Trust Luxury Resale? A Founder’s Honest Take on Counterfeits

While this journey is imagined, it's based on how RETRO//VRS works in real life...provenance, royalties, and ownership that doesn’t end at the first sale.

In the world of luxury resale, some bags don’t just change hands, they make history. This is the imagined story of one legendary Chanel piece that has journeyed across continents, generations, and lifestyles while earning its owners more than just admiration. Thanks to the power of blockchain-backed provenance and RETRO//VRS’s innovative royalties system, this bag has literally paid its owners back over and over again.

Paris, where it all began. A bag bought with intention and a legacy waiting to unfold.

Our tale begins in Paris, where this classic Chanel Classic Flap Bag was first purchased at a boutique near Rue Cambon, Coco Chanel’s original flagship address. Crafted with meticulous care, timeless quilted leather, and the iconic interlocking CC clasp, this bag was never just a fashion statement. It was a symbol of enduring style and a badge of legacy. Unbeknownst to its first owner, it became a future asset.

Some bags travel by trunk, some by shoulder. The journey is what gives it value.

The original owner is a collector with a passion for heritage pieces. The bag was authenticated through one of our trusted partners at RETRO//VRS. This authentication was the first step in locking the bag’s provenance onto the blockchain, creating a permanent digital certificate that would follow the bag for life.

After several years of cherished use, the original owner decided to resell the bag. The bag was listed directly by the seller with the authentication certificate proudly displayed. When the bag was sold to its second owner, a fashion influencer based in New York, the original seller received their share from the sale, and the bag’s digital provenance was officially locked onto the blockchain. That single step unlocked future royalties. From that moment forward, every resale would continue to pay the original RETRO seller, even after they no longer owned the bag. This is what we mean by resale redefined. 

Katie Holmes in NYC, proving that the Chanel Flap Bag never goes out of rotation.

The New York owner was thrilled, not only for owning a piece of Chanel history but also for the transparent resale journey they inherited. The bag wasn’t just a purchase; it was a living investment. As fashion circles buzzed with admiration for the bag’s storied past, the second owner later resold it through RETRO//VRS’s marketplace. This transaction triggered the first royalty payout. The original owner, who bought the bag at the Chanel boutique in Paris and first listed it on RETRO, received a royalty for that sale. Even though she no longer owned the bag, her role in bringing it on-chain continued to pay off.

In Tokyo, the bag found new life and a new payout chain...on this boutique wall.

The bag next found a new home with a Tokyo-based boutique owner. The blockchain-verified history gave her confidence that she was offering only genuine luxury goods. No guesswork, no re-authentication.  When she sold the bag to an emerging designer in London, the sale triggered a royalty payout distributed across all previous RETRO sellers, the original Parisian collector and the New Yorker who came next. The Tokyo boutique owner received her share from the sale, and joined the royalty chain for any future resales to come. For the London designer, the bag wasn’t just a fashion purchase. It was a piece of living heritage and a chance to own a slice of luxury history with transparent provenance and cultural capital built in.

From Tokyo to London, this Chanel Classic isn’t just seen...it circulates.


This Chanel bag transcended being a simple accessory. It became a cultural artifact, featured in fashion editorials, Instagram posts, and conversations at exclusive events. Its provenance added a layer of story and prestige that no counterfeit could replicate.


Blockchain technology and RETRO//VRS’s royalty system turned this bag into more than a style icon, it became an investment with equity. Every owner wasn’t just a buyer or seller but a shareholder in the bag’s ongoing legacy. The importance of blockchain authentication cannot be overstated. Unlike other platforms where re-authentication is required with every resale, RETRO//VRS locks in authentication once and for all. That’s transparency and trust at a level unmatched in luxury resale.

This iconic Chanel Classic Flap Bag isn’t just a piece of fashion history, but it’s a perfect example of how RETRO//VRS’ lifetime royalties are transforming luxury resale.

From Paris to New York, Tokyo to London, the bag has paid its owners back time and time again. It proves that luxury resale can be profitable, transparent, and empowering.

This Chanel bag didn’t just change hands, it built a legacy. Tracked on-chain and earning royalties with every resale, its story spans Paris to Tokyo. This is what resale equity looks like.

THE BAG THAT PAID ME BACK

In May 2025, we finally opened RETRO//VRS Marketplace to buyers after over a year of development. With this milestone, I wanted to reflect on all the challenges and stories from the development experience. The entire RETRO//VRS Marketplace website was built by two developers with very limited resources.

A recurring challenge for us was repeatedly re-prioritising the features we needed for our MVP (Minimum Viable Product). When first starting on a project, you imagine that you’ll be able to integrate more features in the MVP than is reasonable. It’s just easier to imagine a product with more features before running into the many development challenges- no surprises there. One thing that lengthened the development process was choosing to move one big feature on the back burner for later, despite having spent hours on research and development already. 

A feature we originally envisaged for MVP involved complex 3D photogrammetry technology. Photogrammetry is the generation of a 3D rendering of an object based on photos taken from different angles. This involves highly specific skills that our humble team of two developers did not have, at least not to the degree we needed.

Example of 3D photogrammetry on a statue 

We evaluated various options and spent hours researching possible solutions, looking for services that we could integrate to our project. With our very limited resources, we did not find a solution that was both affordable and to a high enough standard we were looking for, plus taking into account all the other features we still had to develop.

RETRO//VRS 3D photogrammetry of a Louis Vuitton bag

In autumn 2024, we decided to put 3D renderings on the back shelf and exclude it from the MVP. Despite being visually impactful, the feature wasn’t crucial in any way for the first version of RETRO//VRS Marketplace. None of the initial core values or offerings of the product depended on the 3D renderings in order for us to launch. Despite the time spent looking for a possible solution, we had to put it to the side and focus on more important things. 

By February 2025, we were ready for our first users. However, we quickly realised that there were a pile of bugs and unexpected technical issues to solve before opening the website to buyers. Browser compatibility, device-related issues, and other fun surprises that don’t come up when testing in development.  

On RETRO//VRS Marketplace, every user is both a buyer and a seller. As far as the software goes, seller-related actions involve a more complex flow, resulting in more bugs and edge cases to deal with. Thus, we had to go through an adjustment period with our first partner seller to make sure everything would be good to go before dropping the link to potential buyers.  During this time we also implemented some new features that were suggested by the pilot seller, and took the time to make the website mobile-friendly. 

Finally in mid-May, we were ready to start sharing the link with potential buyers. Although it lengthened the process, progressively releasing the marketplace to sellers before buyers is something that helped us catch a lot of bugs, issues and feel more serene about releasing with such a small dev team. 

RETRO//VRS Marketplace involves the blockchain, but is made to be accessible to users who are not involved with the blockchain in any way. We call it “web 2.5”. Despite the blockchain-related features not being visible to end users, we still had to build secure and upgradeable smart contracts with the future in mind. We would have to add new features in the future and most likely (definitely) will need to make changes to the smart contract eventually. As with many other things, making a smart contract future-proof is a lot more time consuming. To do things well, we couldn't cut corners, even if it meant a longer time until MVP.


Although the process felt endless at times, RETRO//VRS Marketplace is really starting to look like something. Luckily the two of us developers had a complimentary skills, which meant we were able to cover the range of what we needed for MVP just as a pair.  Stay tuned for more developer stories!

RETRO//VRS Marketplace has been in development since March 2024. Reflecting back on some of the challenges and roadblocks we faced during development.

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Can You Trust Luxury Resale? A Founder’s Honest Take on Counterfeits

THE BAG THAT PAID ME BACK

Developer Chronicles – Part 1